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Tested with Mac and updated
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Expand Up @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ gary_niemen:

padraig_o_brien:
name: Padraig O'Brien
picture: http://docslikecode.com/images/padraig_o_brien.jpg
picture: https://docslikecode.com/images/padraig_o_brien.jpg
github: //github.com/padraigobrien
twitter: padraigobrien
bio: "Director of engineering"
bio: "Director of engineering"
179 changes: 95 additions & 84 deletions _posts/articles/2021-02-14-setting-up-techdocs-on-backstage.md
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Expand Up @@ -5,206 +5,217 @@ excerpt: "Techdocs is Spotify's homegrown docs like code solution. it allows the
last_modified_at: Sun Feb 12 14:39:05 CST 2021
categories: articles
author: padraig_o_brien
tags: [backstage, techdocs, roadie, spotify, mkdocs, service catalog]
tags: [backstage, TechDocs, roadie, spotify, mkdocs, service catalog]
image:
path: /images/backstage.jpg
caption: "[Flickr](https://flic.kr/p/o6Sdy6)"
comments: false
share: true
---
TechDocs is Spotify’s homegrown docs-like-code solution built directly into Backstage. This means engineers write their documentation in Markdown files which live together with their code. In this post we will walk you through how to setup Backstage and Techdocs.
TechDocs is Spotify’s homegrown docs-like-code solution built directly into Backstage. [Backstage](https://github.com/backstage/backstage) gives teams one front-end view for all their infrastructure tools, like Google Cloud Platform, Cloud Bigtable, CI pipelines, TensorFlow Extended, and others, all in a consistent, easy-to-use interface, or portal. It's open source software released by Spotify.

With TechDocs built into Backstage, all the engineers write their documentation in Markdown files which live together with their code. You can read more about their docs-as-code story in [this article](https://www.docslikecode.com/articles/ten-tips-maintaining-long-term-docs-like-code/). In this post we will walk you through how to setup Backstage and Techdocs.

**Table of contents**

- Introduction.
- Basic concepts and structure of backstage and techdocs.
- Install Backstage.
- Setup tech docs.
- Creating and publishing documentation.
- Publish to cloud storage
- Recap
- Introduction
- Basic concepts and structure of Backstage and TechDocs
- Install Backstage
- Setup TechDocs
- Create and publish documentation
- Publish to cloud storage (example)
- Recap and summary

## **Introduction**
## Introduction

Backstage is a platform for building developer portals.
Backstage is a platform for building developer portals, giving one view into developer tools.

Its main benefit is allowing you to ship high quality code fast.
Its main benefit is allowing you to ship high quality code fast thanks to consistent views of your tools and infrastructure.

The main features you get out of the box are
The features you get out of the box are:

- Service catalog.
- Software templates.
- Plugins which allow you to extend backstage functionality.
- Techdocs, which is the focus of this post.
- Service catalog
- Software templates
- Plugins which allow you to extend Backstage functionality
- TechDocs, which is the focus of this post

These features allow you to create standards and best practices across teams. It increases the speed of development. It creates a good developer experience for everyone who uses it. You centralise all your tools and info in one place.
These features allow you to create standards and best practices across teams. It increases the speed of development. It creates a good developer experience for everyone who uses it. You centralize all your tools and information in one place.

In this post I will take you through the following
In this post I will take you through the basic concepts and structure of Backstage and TechDocs, an installation of Backstage including the setup of TechDocs, creating and publishing documentation, all on a local machine on MacOS.

- Learn basic concepts and structure of backstage and techdocs
- Install Backstage
- Setup tech docs
- Creating and publishing documentation.
- All on local machine
## Basic concepts and structures of Backstage and TechDocs

## **Basics concepts and structures of backstage and techdocs**
The focus of this article is TechDocs, so I will go through the main features at a high level.

The focus of this article is techdocs so i will go through the other main features at a high level.
- Service catalog - It keeps track of ownership and metadata for all the software in your ecosystem. Backstage does this by putting metadata in YAML files stored together with your code. You process these files and then you can visualise the catalog in Backstage. This catalog enables your teams to manage and maintain the software they own, making the software discoverable.
- Software templates - This feature allows you to create templates or skeletons of code. These templates are published to GitHub.
- Plugins - Allow you to integrate third party tools or any kind of infrastructure into Backstage. They are open source and you can view a list [here](https://backstage.io/plugins).
- Techdocs - Yay, finally, why we are here. Techdocs is Spotify's homegrown docs like code solution. It allows the user to store documentation near the relevant code, thus allowing the docs to be easily discovered and maintained.

- Service catalog. It keeps track of ownership and metadata for all the software in your ecosystem. it does this by putting metadata in YAML files stored together with your code. You process these files and then you can visualise the catalog in backstage. This will enable your teams to manage and maintain the software they own. it also makes the software discoverable.
- Software templates - This feature allows you to create templates or skeletons of code. These templates are published to github.
- Plugins - Allow you to integrate third part tools or any kind of infrastructure into backstage. They are open source and you can view a list [here](https://backstage.io/plugins)
- Techdocs- yay, finally, why we are here. Techdocs is Spotify's homegrown docs like code solution. it allows the user to store documentation to near code thus allowing it to be easily discovered.
When you deploy Backstage with Techdocs enabled you get a basic out of the box experience.

When you deploy backstage with Techdocs enabled you get a basic out of the box experience.
At its core, TechDocs is an MKDocs plugin with other MkDocs plugins and Python Markdown extensions which allows it to standardize the configuration of MkDocs used for TechDocs.

At its core it is MKDocs plugin and other MkDocs plugins and Python Markdown extensions which allows it to standardize the configuration of MkDocs used for TechDocs.
You can see the source code for TechDocs [here](https://github.com/backstage/mkdocs-TechDocs-core).

You can see the code [here](https://github.com/backstage/mkdocs-techdocs-core)
The other moving parts are:

The other moving parts are
- The TechDocs container which can be found on DockerHub at https://hub.docker.com/r/spotify/techdocs, which builds static content through MKDocs.
- The Techdocs backend plugin which is the backend part of the TechDocs plugin.
- The Techdocs CLI, a handy command line tool for managing TechDocs sites in Backstage.
- The Techdocs reader, it fetches remotes pages, runs "transforms" against them, and renders them in a shadow DOM.
- The Transforms API takes in parameters from the reader component and returns a function which gets passed the DOM of the fetched page.

- The techdocs container which can be found on Docker-hub, It builds static content through MKDocs
- The Techdocs backend plugin This is the backend part of the techdocs plugin.
- The Techdocs CLI, Command line tool for managing techdocs sites in backstage
- The Techdocs reader, it fetch's remotes pages , run transformers against them and renders them in a shadow DOM
- Transformers API is a function that takes in parameters from the reader component and returns a function which gets passed the dom of the fetched page.
**Architecture**

Architecture
![Architecture diagram](/images/techdocs/backstage-techdocs-architecture.png)

![Architecture diagram](https://backstage.io/docs/assets/techdocs/architecture-basic.drawio.svg)
When you open a TechDocs site, a request is made. The TechDocs reader calls the TechDocs-backend with the entity id and the path of the current page. The response contains the static content. The static content contains HTML and CSS, and any JavaScript is removed for security reasons.

When you open a techdocs sites a request is made the techdocs reader calls the techdocs-backend with the entity id and the path of the current page, the response contains the static content
Transforms are then applied which modify the generated static HTML files for a number of reasons like removing certain headers and so on.

The static content contains HTML and CSS, javascript is removed for security reasons
For the following instructions, since we are using a local install for demonstration and trial, we will use the local file storage, but in production you would use cloud storage like S3.

Transforms are then applied which modiy the generated static HTML files for a number of reasons like removing certain headers etc
## Install Backstage

For the following instructions we will use the local file storage but it is better to use cloud storage like S3.
> If you have any difficulty with the installation, you can [log an Issue in the Backstage repository](https://github.com/backstage/backstage/issues).
## **Install Backstage**
### Prerequisites

### Perquisites
Mac running MacOS
* Mac running MacOS

Node version 14.x
* Node Version Manager (nvm) so that you can ensure you're using Node version 14. Run: `curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash` or `curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | zsh` on MacOS Catalina and newer.

cookiecutter
* Node version 14.x (Cannot use Node version 15.x) (You can use `brew install node` to install on MacOS if needed.) Run `nvm use --lts` so that you can run Node version 14.15.5 for this demo.

If you already have backstage installed then skip this.
* Yarn (Use `brew install yarn` for this demo.)

If you already have Backstage installed, then you skip this "create-app" step. First, create the initial app in any directory you choose:

```jsx
npx @backstage/create-app
```

You are asked some questions on setup, The recommendation for this tutorial is to go with SQLLite.
This will take a few minutes.

You are asked some questions on setup. The recommendation for this local tutorial is to go with SQLLite by using the down arrow when prompted.

![npx install](/images/techdocs/Untitled.png)
![npx install](/images/techdocs/create-app.png)

If successful you will see this message
If successful you see this message:

![successful](/images/techdocs/01.png)

cd into your directory and run
Change into your created app's directory, the name you used for the app. In this example the name is `infraportal`:

```
cd infraportal
```

Then run:

```jsx
yarn workspace backend start
```

![yarn workspace](/images/techdocs/02.png)

Open a new terminal window and
Open a new terminal window and change directories to the `infraportal` where you created the app.
```
cd ~/src/backstage/infraportal
```

Then start the app with this command:

```jsx
run yarn start
yarn run start
```

![yarn start](/images/techdocs/03.png)

If successful a browser window will open up and you should be presented with a window
If successful, a browser window opens and you should be presented with a window.

![successfull register](/images/techdocs/04.png)
![successful register](/images/techdocs/04.png)

Well done, you have successfully installed backstage on your machine.
Well done, you have successfully installed Backstage on your local machine.

## Setup TechDocs

Historically you had to manually add Techdocs , the latest version of create-app bundles tech docs.
Historically you had to manually add Techdocs, but now the latest version of `create-app` bundles TechDocs.

to verify this you should be able to see entries for the following plugin

```jsx
'@backstage/plugin-techdocs';

```

in the following files
To verify this setup, you should be able to see entries for the plugin `'@backstage/plugin-TechDocs';` in the following files:

```jsx
packages/app/src/plugins.ts
packages/app/src/App.tsx
```

## Creating and publishing techdocs
## Creating and publishing TechDocs

To create docs manually from scratch click on create component
To create docs manually from scratch, click on Create component:

![manuall](/images/techdocs/05.png)

From here choose the Documentation template
From here choose the Documentation template.

![template](/images/techdocs/06.png)

Fill out Name and Description
Fill out a Name and Description.

![Name Desc](/images/techdocs/07.png)

Type in the owner, the Github repo you want to call it , ensure their is no Github repo that exists with the same name or the Templater will fail
Have a GitHub org or owner and a GitHub repo ready to use for your docs. Have a [GitHub token created](https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token) and available in your environment as `GITHUB_TOKEN`. Type in the GitHub owner and the GitHub repo you want to use. Make sure there is no GitHub repo that exists with the same name or the Templater will fail.

![owner](/images/techdocs/08.png)

Once you click on create you will be presented with a Create component status popup.

![create component](/images/techdocs/09.png)

Once the repository has been published to github the create component status popup will go green like below.
Once the repository has been published to GitHub, the Create component status popup will show green like below.

![popup](/images/techdocs/10.png)

You will be able to navigate to the docs.

![navigate](/images/techdocs/11.png)

If it is the first time you are loading them you could receive this message while it converts from MD to html
If this is the first time you are loading the docs, you could receive this message while it converts from Markdown to HTML.

![loading](/images/techdocs/12.png)

Here is what you will be presented with.
Here is a screenshot of what you will be presented with.

![results](/images/techdocs/13.png)

You now have techdocs up and running on your machine, if you want to view the files manually they are located at the following location on you machine
You now have TechDocs up and running on your machine. Well done. If you want to view the files and work on them locally they are located at the following location on your machine:

```jsx
backstage/node_modules/@backstage/plugin-techdocs-backend/static/docs/default/Component/
backstage/node_modules/@backstage/plugin-TechDocs-backend/static/docs/default/Component/
```

The recommended setup is to place the output on to cloud storage and not on the local machine
Your workflow would be to work on the files, preview locally, then commit your changes and send in pull requests, using your team's Git workflows.

## Publish to cloud storage

The recommended setup is to place the output on to cloud storage such as S3, and not on the local machine, so let's look at that.

> Note: This section is just an overview, and not a full tutorial, because there are a lot of prerequisites for setting up cloud storage. If you're interested, read the AWS S3 documentation about [Creating a bucket](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/create-bucket-overview.html) and the [Buckets overview](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/UsingBucket.html).
![cloud](/images/techdocs/14.png)

When you startup backstage you should see this message in the logs to confirm you are using cloud storage
When you startup Backstage you should see this message in the logs to confirm you are using cloud storage:

![registered](/images/techdocs/15.png)

You will also see the content in the S3 bucket.

![s3](/images/techdocs/16.png)

## Recap
## Recap and summary

In summary, we went through an introduction on Backstage, TechDocs, and how to publish TechDocs locally. We took a look at the cloud storage option with some screenshots showing S3. To learn more about Backstage I would recommend visiting [https://backstage.io](https://backstage.io) or if you want to learn more about TechDocs then [https://backstage.io/docs/features/TechDocs/TechDocs-overview](https://backstage.io/docs/features/TechDocs/TechDocs-overview) offers a great overview.

In summary, we went through an introduction on backs stage, techdocs and how to publish techdocs locally and to cloud storage via s3. if you want to learn more about backstage i would recommend visiting [https://backstage.io](https://backstage.io) or if you want to learn more about techdocs then [https://backstage.io/docs/features/techdocs/techdocs-overview](https://backstage.io/docs/features/techdocs/techdocs-overview)
You can also read about the gains the team at Spotify has seen since using TechDocs for all their documentation in [Ten tips for maintaining a long-term relationship with docs like code](https://www.docslikecode.com/articles/ten-tips-maintaining-long-term-docs-like-code/). TechDocs has a really nice [project board in GitHub,](https://github.com/orgs/backstage/projects/1#card-54927264) so if you're interested in working on it yourself, take a look.

If you like the idea of backstage but don't want the inconvenience of managing backstage yourself then i would check out [https://roadie.io](https://roadie.io).
If you like the idea of Backstage but don't want the inconvenience of managing Backstage yourself, then check out [https://roadie.io](https://roadie.io). Thanks for taking a look at this tutorial and happy documenting!
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